Abstract
Inkjet printing is a promising technology for the scalable fabrication of organic electronics because of the material conservation and facile patterning as compared with other solution processing techniques. In this study, we have systematically investigated the cross-sectional profile control of silver (Ag) electrode via inkjet printing. A facile methodology for achieving inkjet-printed Ag source/drain with improved profiles is developed. It is demonstrated that the printing conditions such as substrate temperature, drop spacing and printing layers affect the magnitude of the droplet deposition and the rate of evaporation, which can be optimized to greatly reduce the coffee ring effects for improving the inkjet-printed electrode profiles. Ag source/drain electrodes with uniform profiles were successfully inkjet-printed and incorporated into organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs). The resulting devices showed superior electrical performance than those without special treatments. It is noted to mention that the strategy for modulating the inkjet-printed Ag electrodes in this work does not demand the ink formulation or complicated steps, which is beneficial for scaling up the printing techniques for potential large-area/mass manufacturing.
Highlights
Direct writing technologies with high-precision patterns have aroused wide attention due to their important applications for high-performance optoelectronic devices
Printing processes can eliminate the requirements for cleanroom environments, complicated fabrication steps, expensive photolithography masks and hazardous waste. These encouraging features have endowed this technique with the potential to be applied in various organic electronics such as organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs),[6,7,8,9] organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs)[10,11,12,13,14] and organic solar cells (OSCs).[15,16,17,18]
We have systematically investigated the printing conditions which can affect the profiles of inkjet-printed Ag electrodes
Summary
Direct writing technologies with high-precision patterns have aroused wide attention due to their important applications for high-performance optoelectronic devices. When printed ink is spread on the substrate surface, the solute usually flows along the edge of the droplet deposition to form uneven ring morphology.[19] During the drying process of droplets in inkjet printing, it is a common phenomenon known as “coffee ring effect”,20–25 which is generated due to the irregular recession of three phase contact line and the outward capillary flow in an evaporating droplet. This will greatly reduce the uniformity of the inkjet-printed films, limiting the application of the inkjet printing technology in manufacturing high-performance optoelectronic devices. Extensive studies were exerted to suppress the coffee ring effects.[26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33] Deegan and co-workers first
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